About 25 years ago, Janis began having back problems. After spending 35 years singing for 90 minutes at a time while a guitar hung from her shoulders, footwear became really important. Being petite, she always wore solid colors – a guitar at the midsection cuts a person in half, but solids aren’t terribly interesting visually, either. So, she went looking for footwear that would be both comfortable and colorful. The website Zappos.com had just opened online, and she put in a search for “square-toed boot interesting colors,” and there they were. She’s worn them ever since, getting them re-worked as necessary. Unfortunately, there were very few of these made, and Ian spent two decades looking for a spare pair. She finally found one a few years ago and was able to donate these to her Berea archives.

The boots were repainted by singer/songwriter Natalia Zukerman.